Bottle carrier



March 13, 1945.

W. A. RINGLER BOTTLE CARRIER 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed July 24, 1941 n 1 11 fi r4 INVENTOR.

I n ILL/AM ,4. RINGLER.

WWMQM ATTOR N EYS.

.March 13, 1945; w. A. RINGLER BOTTLE CARRIER Filed July 24, 1941 2 Sheets-Sheet '2 ATTORNEYS.

llllllllllllllllllllllll Patented Mar. 13, 1945 BOTTLE CARRIER William A. Ringler, Wayne, Pa., asslgnor to The Gardner-Richardson Company,

Middle-town.

Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application July 24, 1941, Serial No. 403,900

7 Claims.

' My invention relates to a carrier for bottles and has for its principal objects the provision of an improved carrier; the provision of a carrier which can be made less expensively and from a smaller quantity of paperboard; the provision of a carrier which with the bottles is capable of being stacked; the provision of a hand carrier which when empty is capable of being shipped and stored in flat or knocked down condition.

It is also an object of my invention to provide a carrier which, in order to retain the bottles, does not require any interfolding operations, and a carrier which when some or all of the bottles are taken out of it will retain its shape and stand upright so that the bottles may be readily reinserted. I

It is also an object of my invention to provide a carrier which while less expensive to construct is stronger and safer in use, and which retains the bottles tightly without the provision of intricate and cumbersome folds, flaps or folding steps.

These objects and others which will be apparent to one skilled in the art upon reading these specifications or will be pointed out hereinafter, I accomplish by that certain construction and arrangement of parts of which I shall now describe an exemplary embodiment.

Reference is made to the drawings wherein:

Figure 1 is a plan view of a blank of one of my carriers, with a dotted line showing of another blank in nested relationship with the first, showing how my structures may be cut from paper board or the like without wastage.

Figure 2 is a plan view of the blank with the initial folds made therein.

Figure 3 is a partial view showing the next step in the formation of the carrier.

Figure 4 is a plan view of the completed structure ready for shipment or use.

Figure 5 is a sectional view thereof taken along the line 5-5 of Figure 4.

Figure 6 is a transverse vertical sectional view of the erected carrier.

Figure 7 is a perspective view thereof with parts broken away.

Figure 8 is a perspective view of a filled carrier.

Figure 9 is a horizontal sectional view thereof taken along the line 9-9 of Figure 8.

Figure 10 is a perspective view of a carrier having a somewhat modified construction.

My carrier is of a type in which a band surrounds the bottles so as to provide what might be termed the side and end walls of the carrier, and in which sidewise extensions on the band portion are bent to form a bottom support for the bottles and a centrally disposed upstanding portion passing between the bottles and coming above the tops of the necks thereof to form carry.- ing handles. Carriers possessing somewhat analogous parts have heretofore been suggested; but they have not had the advantages of my structure as will be clear from these specifications.

One of the advantages, mentioned under the objects of my invention, is economy in the board or other stock from which the carrier is made. Heretofore structures of this class have been characterized by a large wastage of the board from which they are cut. This is not characteristic of the carriers of my invention. They are capable of being cut from a piece of paperboard or the like without wastage for the reason that the individual blanks are so constructed that they nest with each other in reverse orientations. Yet thestructure is such that the nested blanks are not rights and lefts but are identical, so that a sheet of paper board may, if desired, be printed upon one side and then scored and out. without wastage, into a large number of identical carrier blanks, depending upon the size of the sheet. Moreover, the construction is such that a minimum area of board is required for each individual blank; and this enables me to provide a superior carrier employing a substantially less area of board than has been possible hitherto. Again the construction or my blank is such that when filled with bottles a particularly rigid structure is obtained, very suitable for stacking.

In Figure 1, I have indicated in solid lines a blank having a. band portion i and a pair ofsidewise extensions 2 and 3 from the band portion. Disregarding the overlap of the ends of the band section, the length of the band is made to be four times the width of one of the extensions 2 or 3. The extension 2 and 3 are of equal width and are interspaced from each other the width of one extension. The band also extends in one direction beyond one of the extensions a distance equal to the width of theextension as will be apparent from Figure 1. This gives me a nestable blank, since a similar blank, reversed as to orientation, can have its extensions lie between and beyond the extensions of the first mentioned blank and will exactly correspond thereto.

At one end of the band section I have shown an attachment part t extending beyond the side of one of the side extensions. The band section may be scored as at s and l in the centers of the spaces between the extensions. This enables me to tube the band and fasten its ends together to make it continuous, and the operation oitubing is similar to that of tubing any knocked down folding carton.

The length of the band is mad such as to encircle the assembly of bottles closely; and the width of the extensions is calculated on the basis of the length of the band as hereinabove set forth.

Bottle carriers in current use are made to contain six bottles, 1. e. two rows of three bottles each. This gives an oblong assembly of bottles. A way of determining the length of the band would be to measure around such an assembly of bottles, with two layers of the boxboard between the two rows, and then make that the length of the band section with an allowance for overlapping. The width of each extension then becomes a quarter of the length of the band without the allowance for overlapping.

Since most bottles for which carriers are used are round or curved in cross section, the band portion in my erected carrier is not intended to present four sides meeting each other at right angles. Rather the band, at the outer corner of the bottle assembly, is intended to follow the contour of the bottles and encircle them tightly. Consequently, in addition to the score lines 6 and on which the blank is to be folded in form- 'ing the completed carrier, it is my practice to provide a plurality of parallel score lines 8, [0, I2 and I3 to assist the band portion in conforming to the outer contours of the bottle assembly. How it does this will be apparent from Figures 8, 9 and 10.

The extensions 2 and 3 are articulated to the band portion l by lines of score it and I5 which are prolongations of the side edge of the band portion to which the extensions are attached. When the carrier is erected as shown in Fig. 6, portions l6 and H are adapted to form a bottom for supporting the bottles. These portions are set off from the remainder of the extensions by score lines l8 and I9. Now the portions and 2| of the extensions are adapted to come together along the center line of the erected carrier and to form a common upstanding carrier portion. This carrier portion may be provided with a U-shaped cut 22 forming a. flap 23 which. when folded back will leave a hand hole. Each extension may be formed in this way or each extension may have a fully cut-out opening 24 or as shown in Figure 1, one extension may be formed with the flap and the other with the hole. A score line 25 or 26 is preferably formed at the inward edge of the flap 23 or hole 24, and the parts are so arranged that these score lines come substantially at the level of the caps of the bottles. Thus for stacking purposes, it is possible to lay portions 21 and 28 back over the tops of the bottles as illustrated in Figure 8. Or by providing additional score lines 29 and 3||, it is possible to fold the parts 21 and 28 and tuck them down between the necks of the bottles and along portions 20 and 2| for stacking purposes.

In forming my carriers, the first step after the blank of Figure 1 has been produced is to fold back the extensions along the score lines is and I9 into the position shown in Figure 2. The next step is to fold back the end portion of the band along the score line This is illustrated in Figure 3 where the part folded is marked 3|. The next step is to fold over the other end portion of the blank and its extension 2| on the score line 6 to the position shown in Figure 4. This tubes the band portion the ends of which may be connected by gluing, stapling, as at 32 and 83, or otherwise as may be desired. Also it brings the two extensions together; and the portions 20 and 2| thereof may be attached together as by staples 34 and 35 or otherwise as may be desired. They also may be left unattached; but I prefer to attach them because this contributes to the rigidity of m carrier when it is fully erected but does not contain bottles or contains less than the full number of bottles.

Figure 5 is a cross sectional view of the fully formed carrier in the knocked down position of Figure 4. The relation of the parts will be clear from the index numerals. The knocked down carriers as illustrated in Figures 4 and 5 may be packaged and shipped to the purchaser.

When the carriers are to be filled with bottles they are erected by pressing on the outer ends of the tubed band so as to bring it into oval shape or by pressing the structure as indicated in Figures 4 and 5 down upon a surface. This results in causing the parts It and I! to come to lie in the same plane, forming a bottom bottle support for the structure. The structure will then have the appearance of Figures 7 or 10 and may be filled with bottles.

In some instances I desire to have tab members between the bottles. The extension parts 20 and 2| provide a partition between the two rows of the bottles; but I provide partitions between the bottles of each row, where it is desired, by forming in the band I, U-shaped cuts 38, 31, 38 and 39, forming tabs-40, AI, 42 and 43, adapted to lie between the bottles. When the carrier is in knocked down position these tabs lie in the plane of the band portions; but they may be struck inwardly as indicated in Figures 6, 7, 8 and 9, for the purpose described. They have a cushioning effect between bottles and also assist in retaining the bottles more tightly in the carrier. Figure 8 shows how the portions 21, 28 may be bent over upon the tops of the bottles when it is desired to stack the filled carriers. When it is desired to carry the filled structure the flap 23 will be passed through the hole 24 as shown in Figures 6 and 7. Where there are two flaps as illustrated in Figure 10 they may both be passed to one side of the structure as shown. The flaps have the effect of providing a thicker handle, promoting ease in carrying, and a somewhat stronger handle from the standpoint of long continued use and re-use of the carriers.

If desired for stitching, or otherwise, the band portion of the carrier may be perforated as at 44 in Figure 10.

It will be noted that the portions I6, U do not form a complete bottom in the sense of underlying the entire area enclosed by the band I. But the proportioning of parts is such that the portions I6 and I1 taken together underlie all of the bottles in the assembly, and the band fits the assembled bottles so closely that the bottles are maintained on the portions l6 and I1. Consequently these portions will safely support the bottles because the band encircles the bottle assembly tightly, making a more rigid package, and also saving board as will be apparent. By proportioning the parts as hereinabove taught, blanks for my carriers may be cut from board with substantially no waste. The width of the band member i does not constitute a limitation upon by invention. The width of the band portion has nothing to do with the length of blanks as cut from a sheet of board; making the band wider or narrower merely requires more or less board according to the changed area of the band portion. While the band could be made to be equal to the height of the bottles this is neither necessary nor in most cases desirable for the reason that some display of the bottles themselves is usually wanted, and second because rigidity and resistance against racking is a funcvarying diameters, having alternate wider or narrower portions, the width of the band should be such as to keep the bottles from tilting out of the carrier.

My invention is not limited to the provision of carriers for assemblies of six bottles in two rows of three each. The principles which I have set forth may be adapted to the provisionof carriers for other assemblies of bottles and for assemblies of bottles of different numbers, as will be clear. By way of example, by maintaining the proportions of parts the advantages of my invention may be obtained with assemblies of smaller or larger numbers of bottles. Depending upon the requirements of particular bottle assemblies, my carriers may be made so that in erected form they have lengths and breadths varying from the same to quite divergent values.

Modifications may be made in my invention without departing from the spirit of it.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A bottle carrier formed from a single blank of a flexible material and comprising an elongated band portion adapted (when its ends are joined) to be erected as a structure to surround a substantially rectangular assembly of bottles or the like, said elongated band portion having a pair of extensions at one side edge, each of said extensions comprising a bottom forming portion of substantially halt the width of the said erected structure and articulated to said first mentioned portion, and a portion articulated to said bottom forming portion and adapted to project upwardly substantially centrally of said erected structure, said last mentioned portion terminating in a handle grip part, said extensions each being 0! a width not greater than substantially one-fourth of the length of said first mentioned band portion, andsaid extensions being spaced from each other by at least the width of an extension whereby in cutting out blanks from a larger sheet of flexible material said blanks may be juxtaposed in reverse position with the said extensions of adjacent blanks nested therein.

2. The structure of claim 1 in which said first mentioned band portion is provided with a series of transverse score lines relatively closely interspaced, to provide for a configuration of said erected structure which is rounded on its ends.

3. The structure of claim 1 in which said first mentioned band portion is provided with a series of transverse score lines relatively closely interspaced, to provide for a configuration of said erected structure which is rounded on its ends, and in which said first mentioned portion is provided with tongues formed by cut lines on three sides and a score line on another side, which tongues may be inwardly struck to form partition parts in said erected structure.

4. A blank construction'for a carrier or the like, comprising an elongated portion and a pair of sidewise extensions from said portion, each located on the same side thereof, said extensions being of a width approximately one-fourth that of the first mentioned portion and being interspaced from each other by the width of an extension, whereby in cutting out blanks from a larger sheet of flexible material said blanks may be juxtaposed in reverse position with the said extensions of adjacent blanks nested therein, said first mentioned portion being adapted to surround an assembly of articles, and said extensions each comprising a bottom forming portion and a handle forming portion adapted to extend upwardly within the enclosure formed by the first mentioned portion when its ends are 40 joined.

5. The structure claimed in claim 4 wherein the width of the said extensions is at least equal to the width of said first mentioned portion.

6. The structure claimed in claim 1 in which said first mentioned portion is provided with tongues severed except at one edge, which tongues may be inwardly struck to form partition parts in said erected structure.

'1. The structure claimed in claim 1 in which u said handle grip parts are provided with transverse score lines to permit bending over or said handle grip parts into a horizontal plane for stacking.

WILLIAM A. RING-LEE. 

